A plug for a fellow poster, and possibly a fun thing to follow tonight:

EmptyMaybe will be on the floor, blogging as things unfold tonight as part of the Caps entourage at the draft. He might be in a position to get a sneak peak or heads up (to share with us) at whatever goes down as the all the discussions, dealing etc will be going down right in front of him so I highly recommend following onfrozenblog.com tonight. Kudo's to Leonis and the Caps for opening up their draft to this sort of coverage.

Even if the draft itself ends up anti-climatic, it's still a rare opportunity to put us fans "at the table" or "on the floor" so to speak.

Not sure if anyone is willing, but as I recently rejoined the OB's -as a Newbie I can't post new topics over there. If someone here is a member over there, perhaps they'd be willing to post a new thread with the Onfrozenblog link and heads up for tonight.

Just don't bring anymore of the posters from there back with ya'

(As fans of the worst covered team in the history of the National Hockey League, it's really in our own best interest to try and support this kind of access/coverage the Caps are experimenting with.)

Anyway, I know many here are banned or avoid the OB's like the plague, but I'd like to see this kind of coverage be the norm and it takes a bigger audience than the 10-15 faithful around here to ensure that it happens.

Good prediction Idit! 40% kind of shocked me on the high side. But I guess that includes trading up or down.

Two good nuggets from Vogel's piece:

1. There's 5-10 teams we're working with now, but one that GMGM seems to really think works for us and is waiting on the other team. Wonder if its the Edm rumor. Though I agree like most that I'm not sure why Edm would trade with us.

2. There's a team that says "wait to after the draft to disucss". I hope it's 'USELESS' and Calgary wants to focus on other issues. But whomever it is, they must be looking at our current roster or prospect list since there's apparently enough interest from that team w/o including any of this weekend's picks.

props to those who predicted a trade might happen. I never saw it coming. Sounded crazy to me, why try and trade for a pick in a draft where noone's happy w/the drafts options? (unless a team figures its top 5 then garbage). Do we have any clue on whether the trade would be up, or down, or for players?

props to those who predicted a trade might happen. I never saw it coming. Sounded crazy to me, why try and trade for a pick in a draft where noone's happy w/the drafts options? (unless a team figures its top 5 then garbage). Do we have any clue on whether the trade would be up, or down, or for players?

About four and a half hours to go till the draft actually begins and it still hasn't gone down, or been announced, and none of the rumormongers are saying it's imminent. Trade discussions can fall apart for any number of reasons at the last minute. Perhaps the other team gets a better offer, or one team won't budge on what it's asking or being offered. So we just don't know now whether it'll ever happen.
I'm following those Vancouver rumors closely, but the word is they want to trade up to #2 to get their local boy Turris. If they want to dump salary, they can use us as their trashcan. It seems very likely that Chicago will be taking Kane #1

I'm not sure Vancouver is the right fit for Philadelphia's pick. It seems like Philly either wants immediate help or a combination of picks and a taker for their some of their excess salary. I read somewhere that Vancouver was balking at giving up a roster player for the pick and they don't have the cap room to take on much salary.

If Philadelphia is seeking the later of the two types of deals then I'd imagine Los Angeles, Washington and Edmonton would be interested parties. Each has a great deal of cap space and a high pick to swap with. Washington and Edmonton have multiple first round picks, too, if that's their fancy.

Philadelphia has also been pretty high on Kane for some time. They may be waiting until Chicago picks and hope that they take Turris before they pull the trigger on any deal involving the second pick.

I really don't know why you'd trade a top 5 pick in any draft unless you could get a good player for a long term. Top 5 picks aren't guaranteed to turn into great players, but they have a pretty good track record.

I'd think of packaging picks 28 and 34 and a player for someone, but top 5? eek.

Of course, if they trade down to 10 it wouldn't be that bad because guys like espisito, hamill, cherepanov, backlund, etc. should be available around then. But trading a top 5 for a player with only a year or two left until UFA doesn't sound like a great idea to me.

Malyk, you have that opinion because you're thinking in terms of previous drafts, where guaranteed NHL stars were available in the Top 5. It's not like that this year. Every kid has a question mark, a flaw, a rumor of poor attitude, or something about him. A New Yourk Rangers scout called this draft one of the worst he's seen in his 14 years. Better to get something of value for this pick, that can help us build our team, than watch our pick pull a Volchkov on us

Malyk, you have that opinion because you're thinking in terms of previous drafts, where guaranteed NHL stars were available in the Top 5. It's not like that this year. Every kid has a question mark, a flaw, a rumor of poor attitude, or something about him. A New Yourk Rangers scout called this draft one of the worst he's seen in his 14 years. Better to get something of value for this pick, that can help us build our team, than watch our pick pull a Volchkov on us

That may be true. But I get the impression that when people say it is a weak draft they are talking about the first round as a whole. Sure, you don't have a crosby or ovechkin in the draft, but you can't tell me none of these guys don't have the ability to perform like Jordan Staal (as a recent example).

I think teams that pick kane, voracek, gagner, alzner, cherepanov are all going to end up with second line talent at the least. I left off turris and JvR because of the competition they play against. There are certainly questions about guys in the 10-20 range, but the top 6-10 are probably going to be contributors in the nhl.

Say we trade the 5th and more for Marleau instead of drafting Voracek. On July 1 08 he walks away. Voracek would probably be stepping into a second line RW role in sept. 08. He'd be around for 7 years (baring trades and RFA sniping, of course). Is it right for your team to have 1 potentially good year before returning to mediocrity? Or is it better to build the base for a long term playoff contender?

I get the feeling that Gagner is going to be the pick. He trains really hard and is the son of an NHLer. I know from my experiences with the Caps that they'll like that and won't like Voracek's lack of strength and conditioning.(Watch them take him now).

I could also see the Caps moving up from 28 to go after Backlund or maybe Couture. My impression is they really like Backlund and I won't be stunned if they take him at 5.

The guys I really like in this draft are Van Riemsdyk, Cherepanov, and Kane.

I'm not as high on Gagner as most. He leaves himself too open for big hits and a lot of his production came on the PP. In fairness to him, he's young and hasn't had a lot of experience against top competition.

I like Aliu from the video I've seen. Physically he's top 5 IMO. He could become a very popular player if the attitude thing doesn't ruin him.

I don't like Esposito at all. I wouldn't take him at 28, let alone 5. He's an extremely selfish player in the games I watched. There's definitely physical talent, but zero hockey sense.

He's a scout dude, he didn't make the actual picks, he only gives advice. The Staal, Montoya and Giguere picks sound pretty damn good to me. And that's only the first round, they got Lundqvist and Prucha in later rounds. Done better than the Capitals in drafting.
You really are an Eklund fanboi aren't you?